Play all audios:
While the cause of the Morandi bridge collapse is not yet known, David Knight, a structural engineer who specialises in the design of bridges, said that maintenance of the bridge is “more
likely” to have been “at fault” rather than weather. A large section of the bridge collapsed on Tuesday and left up to 39 people dead and 16 injured. The Italy bridge is one of the major
motorway bridges in the region of Liguria and had restructuring work carried out on it in 2016. Speaking on BBC News, Mr Knight said: “This is an absolute tragedy and it is something that,
as engineers, we live in fear of. “We design and spend all the time that we can trying to avoid this kind of tragedy – even 50 years after the design has been completed.” He added: “It’s
difficult to speculate exactly where the fault lies. The maintenance is more likely to have been at fault at this stage in the process. “For 50 years it has stood up and stood up to the
worst of the Mediterranean storms that can be thrown against it. But over time bridges deteriorate and without adequate maintenance they may suffer.” The structural engineer said bridges
made now are “not very often” built in the same way. He said: “If we were looking at this now we would go for a different solution.” But Stergios Mitoulis, who specialises in bridge design
at the University of Surrey, said there could have been environmental factors that resulted in the bridge weakening earlier than expected. "One factor could be the proximity to the sea,
and the second could be the fact that the bridge was in an industrial area, so the local pollutants could have led to an accelerated decline." The bridge was named after engineer
Riccardo Morandi and was built between 1963 and 1967. Amid growing fury over the collapse, Transport Minister Danilo Toninelli called for senior bosses at the company that operated the
collapsed bridge, Autostrade per l’Italia, to “step down first of all”. He said: “I have given mandate to my ministry to start all proceedings to apply the agreement, that is to revoke the
concession from these companies and seek significant sanctions.” The company, Autostrade per l’Italia, said it had been carrying out regular maintenance checks on the bridge and was
satisfied with the results. But Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio said: “Autostrade should have done maintenance and didn't do it.”